mation.

In a plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party
in July 1973, the party leaders touched on issues of international
relations. The leaders pledged to continue a new policy of building
goodwill and enhancing relations with noncommunist European states as
well as with other developed capitalist states in all aspects of
political, economic, cultural, and other relations. Bulgaria also sought
to continue cultivating and developing friendly relations with
nonaligned friendly countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Consistent with this policy, it pledged to render assistance to these
countries, especially where there were national liberation movements
involved in active resistance to the established regimes.

Greece and Turkey

Greece is geographically contiguous to Bulgaria, and relations between
the two countries have been alternately hot and cold depending on the
political climate of the times. In 1964 both countries signed an accord
relative to war reparations, which opened up some channels of
communication, cultural exchanges, and relaxed travel restrictions. The
move toward better relations was interrupted by the 1967 coup d'etat in
Greece, but improvement began again in the early 1970s when officials of
the two governments exchanged visits. By 1972 a newly created
Bulgarian-Greek economic cooperation commission had met in Sofia.

Difficulties between Bulgaria and Turkey have deep roots in history and
also involve the 750,000 ethnic Turks still residing in Bulgaria (see
ch. 2; ch. 4). An atmosphere of cordiality, however, had been developing
slowly as the officials of both countries cautiously negotiated to
reduce tensions between the two countries. Exchanges of high-level
visits and the signing of various economic agreements had stabilized
Bulgarian-Turkish relations by the early 1970s. The hijacking of two
Turkish planes to Sofia in 1972 disturbed the detente temporarily, but
the Bulgarian foreign minister went quickly to Turkey to make amends. In
1973 the two countries again enjoyed improved relations.

The United States

The tensions that marked Bulgarian-United States foreign relations in
the 1950s eased somewhat in the 1960s. The legations of both countries
were raised to embassy status in November 1966. This action was believed
to be an offshoot of United States efforts, particularly that of
President Lyndon B. Johnson, to "build bridges" to Eastern Europe. This
resu